Black Secrets
by ShoesDoNotExist
Summary: The House of Black holds many secrets. A dark look on the night Sirius runs away from his abusive family. Oneshot.


**A/N: Sorry for this double-posting thing but I forgot a disclaimer and it was really bugging me. So no, I don't own anything. Phew, glad I got that off my chest. R&R please! **

Orion Black had many secrets.

Anyone who knew him took that he had _a _secret for granted, but each thought they knew what it was, if not the exact details. Acquaintances, connections, and even co-workers at the Ministry of Magic assumed that, as an Unspeakable, his secrets were twisted up in his work. His family knew that nothing of any real secrecy ever happened there, though. They thought his secret was the secret of the entire Black household- the reason Orion's wife Wallaburga took their youngest son Regulus away to Switzerland or another country every school holiday. Orion Black was far from the ideal father, and his oldest son Sirius had the scars to prove it.

However, Orion was the only one who knew that he had another secret. Having always been fascinated with the Dark Arts, he had gathered quite a collection over the years. But the Ministry had been growing ever the more meddlesome, and his wife wanted him to get rid of the incriminating objects. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Orion didn't get rid of them. Instead, he hid them in the cellar of Black manor. Nobody else in the house even knew they had a cellar. It was something he had discovered in his study behind a large bookcase a few years back, and had never bothered to tell anyone.

They didn't need to know.

And they certainly didn't need to know about the more dangerous items down there. The bottle full of a potion that would slowly turn you inside out if so much as a drop touched your skin, for example. Or, his personal favorite, the coffin with basilik fangs sticking out from every inch of the inside and the inside cover. If anyone ever fell into that coffin (or, he thought grinning, was _pushed _into it) there would be a squelch and no more person.

Orion was in his cellar when he heard his someone walk in the door. He quickly climbed up the stairs back into his study. He turned around, looking back at where he had just come up from. Upon discovery of the cellar he had moved the bookcase that had previously hidden it, and instead put a simple charm on it so it just looked like a wall. He could walk through the mirage when he pleased, and nobody else was fool enough to poke around his study unless he knew about it.

A scuffling noise broke his train of thought. The idiot house-elf had come to say that Master Sirius was back and in the kitchen eating. Eating, Orion thought that lousy Gryffindor comes home and all he does is guzzle up all the food in the house.

Growling and grabbing his wand, Orion Black headed towards the kitchen.

* * *

Sirius was eating as much food as he could, because he knew that as soon as his father was through with him he wouldn't be able to eat for a while. With surprise, he noted he had managed to finish an entire sandwich. It was a sort of sign, Sirius thought. Maybe today was going to be different. He jerked his head up as he heard a footsteps coming. Wand in hand and adrenaline in his veins, he turned to face his father. 

He was yelling at him, what for Sirius didn't know, because he was more concerned with the hexes coming at him from his father's wand. Quickly he blocked them. His immediate instinct was to move backwards, but previous experience told him this would make him lose faster. And with each time Sirius came home, the worse it was when he lost.

Sirius put the most powerful Shield Charm he could muster in front of him and darted around his father, going through the door he entered from. A curse hit him in the back and he winced in pain as it felt like a knife slashed his side open. He fell over, but picked himself up and sent a small hex over his shoulder. None of the spells Sirius used ever hurt his father, but merely provided a distraction so that Sirius had more time to think of his next move.

He dodged another spell and threw his back to the wall. Glancing to the left, he noticed a door. Desperately he yanked it open and slammed it in his father's livid face. Another three seconds to plan. Looking around, Sirius realized coming in here had been a bad idea. This was his father's study- the only way out was the way he came in.

The door shattered and Sirius was immediately hit by such a powerful curse it carried him all the way to the bookcase on the other end of the study. Groaning, Sirius stood up and blocked another hex coming in, then sent off two of his own in return. He stepped left and was hit again, and he leaned against the wall to help him stand up. He must have missed the wall, though, because he was falling. Downstairs?

Groggily Sirius stood up and looked around him. He was in a basement of some sort, full of Dark objects. He walked to the middle of the room, and suddenly his father was running down the stairs screaming at him again. But this time Sirius was ready, energized by the discovery of the Dark objects he could turn his father in for possessing. He whipped around a shot a disarming spell at him, hoping to get enough time to get back near the stairs.

However, his father, enraged Sirius had found the cellar, wasn't ready for the spell. It hit him hard in the shoulder and sent him crashing into a coffin on his right. The coffin snapped shut with an odd _squelch._

And then there was silence.

Shaking, Sirius realized the awful truth of what had happened. And he knew that, as long as he was in this house, he could never live this down. He could be sent to Azkaban, knowing his family. Almost as if in a dream, he walked up the stairs.

_ As long as he was in this house…_ That sparked an idea. His feet knew what was happening already, even if his mind didn't quite grasp it yet. He grabbed his trunk from the hallway it was never moved from. He kept walking.

Suddenly he was in front of the family tapestry. With a grim smile, a short pause, and a wand blast, it was over. Only a small burn mark was left.

The Potters. He could go there. He could explain the bruises. Sirius had been to proud to before, but circumstances change. James could think he knew Sirius' secret. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't because he won't hear anything about a cellar and a coffin.

Anyone who knew Sirius Black would think they knew his secret, if not the exact details. But they wouldn't.

Sirius Black had many secrets.


End file.
